Another Thrift Store Find - German Edition

Found this one at a Thrift Store today.

I appears four rich Germans picked up a hooker.  Their schtick is to first dress up in top hat and tails

They then take the hired woman and ply her with champagne.  Plied externally rather than internally.  They've already gone through three bottles, are currently pouring three more, while their butler has three more 'on deck.'

What strikes me immediately is the butler's ability to look the other way.  This sort of thing must go on all the time and he's trained to not pass judgement.

In addition, all three champagne wielding gentlemen seem to be aiming their spouts at one particular part of the fraulein's anatomy.  The guy on the left hasn't quite gotten his to flow.

I would love to see what transpires over the next few hours.  After that I'd love to see what the butler has to clean up the next morning.  I'll bet those tuxedos will need to go the chemische Reinigung.  Hope the guests brought a change of clothes.  Otherwise they me be going home wearing borrowed kleider.

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Record Bin From Target

My record collection lives upstairs.  My main stereo is downstairs.  Normally the records will stack up downstairs until I feel like taking them back and filing them in the stacks.

From the advice of someone on reddit, I got this spiffy little bin to hold the records downstairs.  It's a little more sightly than a stack of records against the back wall of the the builtin.  It also reserves the space mightily.

RCA's Record Care Manifesto

Record care tips were the norm on inner sleeves in the '50's.   Here's one from RCA.

This one says it's OK to lay your records flat - something we regard as a big no-no these days.

RCA records were treated to Miracle Surface coat.  Have no idea about this one either.  This is the company that brought you DynaGroove (a noise cancelling tone that cancelled out the rumble from console turntables).



Well worth it because......

Olympics in Rio

This is how the boy/girl relay went down

Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl

Disclaimer:  This post was written before I was aware of the impending reissue of this title.  


The Beatles didn't release an official live album during their lifetime. In 1977, Capitol Records dug one up to give us some product.   These tapes were recorded by Capitol when The Beatles played the Hollywood Bowl just up the street from their headquarters near Hollywood and Vine in 1964 and 1965.

The result was this live album

The Beatles At The Hollywood Bowl  (Capitol 1977).

As noted in the liner notes, the original tapes were unusable due the the roar of the crowd.  George Martin did his best, but there are bootlegs that sound better.  Those who attended the shows have said they couldn't hear a thing.  To make matters worse, there were no stage monitors, so The Beatles couldn't hear themselves either.

But Capitol needed product and there was a finite amount of things they could release.

The cover was classy with raised type and images. Replicas of tickets have fake perforations.  They had better seats in 1965.

Even a gatefold where someone decided it would be a good idea to throw cheap merchandise on top of a historic photo.

The inner sleeve depicts fans grooving to the show.  I've always been suspect of this photo.  I think it was staged in 1977.   The hairstyles ain't right.  They're the only ones standing.  They're too perfectly lit.  They happen to be in the same box as the 1965 ticket on the cover.  They're screaming with the house lights on.  You be the judge.  Authentic or fake.

If I'm near a screamer at a show, I try my best to move.  For a Beatles show, I'd probably have to go down the street.

And as a precursor to the psychedelic years to come, The Beatles signed the sky.

And we got a custom label.

This album, although a legitimate release, has vanished into obscurity.  It wasn't released on CD when the big campaign happened in the '80's.  It's not available on any streaming service.

The Hollywood Bowl remains as one of the finest and most prestigious concert venues in Los Angeles.

Twist Record from Goodwill

Any of you who follow my posts (there are about five) know that I love Twist records.

Here's one I picked up today.

Pretty low grade cash in stuff.  I particularly like the maid and policeman twisting together.   This was probably the result of the cop responding to a report of a break-in only to discover it was this woman cleaning up.  What else would they do but twist!

An I guess Organ Twist is something that happens to gentlemen when they do it wrong.

Big Box of 45's

Couldn't resist.  I did it again.  Lowballed two mystery boxes of 45's.  Advertised as 60's garage/psych - genre's I always go for.

So now I've got 200 45's to clean and sample.  The stack on the left has been vetted and will go into the collections.  The second stack has passed the title test, but still needs to be cleaned and sampled.   The third stack is questionable.  Either I'm unfamiliar, have it, or will probably discard.  So far I only have three 'tossers'

There is, however, a mysterious Christmas Day star over the the questionable stack.  Perhaps that means something.

So far, this one is my favorite.  The B-Side of Gimme Gimme Good Lovin' by Crazy Elephant.

Take a listen to Dark Part of my Mind

A Turntable Insert Thing

I have no idea which turntable this came from. Certainly not from any I bought since 1974.  It may have been tucked away in a used record or saved from earlier times.

Whatever table it was, it played 78's and 16's.  It also adapted to 7", 10" and 12" records.

I've never seen a disc at 16.  Their primary use was voice recording for radio syndication in the early days.

Berkeley Record Shopping Adventure

I had the pleasure of visiting the San Francisco Bay Area this weekend.  As usual, I visited Rasputin's in Berkeley.

I got to the Telegraph Avenue area of town before the store opens.  Upon exiting der Uber, I was greeted by a denizen of the street.  He shouted at me that I was all that was wrong with the world.  He smashed bottles on the sidewalk.  He kicked the metal grates that protect the precious records inside of Amoeba from people like him.  He smelled.  His 'area' gave clues it was the maid's day off.

The homeless panhandling teens with their dogs were staring.  The hippie trinket vendors were aghast.  I just kept on walking.

Welcome to Berkeley!

I was going to take a photo for this blog, but I couldn't find the right moment for a 'spy' photo.

Here's a borrowed one from The Internets of the local color.

Rasputin has moved their vinyl across the street and has renamed the place 'The Mad Monk Center for Anachronistic Media.'  It's still the same old Rasputin.  Except their basement is now the main floor.  It's on the corner of Telegraph and Haste.  It's been declared a drug fee zone - but if you've ever been to the area you know the zone was probably just the few inches around the pole.

I spent about an hour there and scored a few great titles.

Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band - Lick My Decals Off, Baby (original pressing on Straight Records).

The Hollywood Persuaders - Drums a Go Go.  (an early Paul Buff production featuring and uncredited Teenage Frank Zappa)

And a few other gems as well.

After about an hour at Rasputin, I went over to Amoeba and was underwhelmed as usual.  It's not their fault. I just never seem to have that magic convergence of price, desire and whim that causes me to make a purchase.

I'll be back.